Florida News Center

(from TampaBay.com) - As local broadcasters prepare to cover what may be the biggest story they’ll see in many years, the preparations for the Republican National Convention in Tampa are reaching a fever pitch.

One TV station, Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS-Ch. 28, gave staffers riot training and hired a former journalism professor from the University of Tampa to focus specifically on arranging it’s RNC coverage. Other stations are considering how to beef up security for the staffers, perhaps hiring guards to watch their vehicles and people while considering advice to de-emphasize station logos while out where protesters may target journalists.

Tampa Fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13 has de-emphasized the logos surrounding it’s Kennedy Blvd. headquarters, with black rectangles placed over some signs featuring the Fox 13 logo and a sign touting its Skytower radar placed over the big station logo in the building’s front yard….Cont….

***NOTE: The image above is from the 1996 St. Peterburg riots. A microwave van from WTOG (who had a news department at the time) was torched by rioters. We here at FNC thought the image above complimented this story perfectly.***

In a press release to Florida News Center, WFTS has announced that Assistant News Director Susan D’Astoli is leaving the Tampa station. She will be the new News Director at Scripps sister station, Tulsa’s KJRH-TV.

D’Astoli will stay on at WFTS until after the Republican National Convention at the end of August. WFTS is currently without a News Director, after Doug Culver left the station this past June.

Florida News Center was curious about who will fill the station’s managerial vacancies and how the station can continue to operate without appropriate leadership. Sources at WFTS assure us that the newsroom is in the “very capable hands of a highly experienced  Managing Editor and a team of Executive Producers.” Expect to hear the rumblings of new hires, after the upcoming RNC.

Stay tuned to Florida News Center for any further changes.

(from TVNewsCheck.com) – The Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., is three weeks away, but covering it is already shaping up to be the biggest undertaking for Don North in seven years as news director of Media General’s WFLA, the market’s NBC affiliate.

The 2009 Super Bowl pales in comparison, North says. “We are going to cover this as aggressively as anything we do. One way or another, everyone is going to be involved,” he says.

The 14th largest TV market’s other network affiliates — Scripps’ WFTS (ABC), Gannett’s WTSP (CBS) and Fox-owned WTVT — are also gearing up for maximum coverage of the four-day event  (Aug. 27-30)  that will center on the Tampa Bay Times Forum, but also include other venues around the market.

“It’s mind boggling,” says WFTS GM Rich Pegram. To prepare, he says, the station has done everything from survey stations in previous convention host cities to contract additional employees so that it will be able to explain “how [the convention] is going to impact … lives,” he says….Cont….